Indonesia-Australia Commercial Cattle Breeding Program

Client name: Australian Government

Project name: Indonesia-Australia Commercial Cattle Breeding Program

Duration: 2016 - ongoing

Location: Indonesia

Coffey's international development team manages the Indonesia-Australia Commercial Cattle Breeding Program to promote sustainable, commercial-scale beef cattle breeding in Indonesia.

Trends in the global supply and demand of beef indicate that supply continues to diminish, while demand and prices are steadily rising. Prices for live cattle in Indonesia have roughly doubled over the last five years as a result of increasing domestic demand, decreasing domestic production reduced availability of imports and high prices from exporting countries.

The Indonesia-Australia Commercial Cattle Breeding Program (IACCB) is funded by the Australian Government in partnership with the Indonesian Government. The program is piloting several different breeding herd systems with private sector partners to trial commercially sustainable approaches to the challenges that to date have prevented the development of the commercial-scale cattle breeding industry in Indonesia.

The new approaches will be able to be up-scaled to facilitate investment and innovation by new and existing industry players. The goal of the program is to support the development and expansion of a competitive beef cattle breeding industry in Indonesia.

IACCB provides technical assistance to carefully selected partners to improve and develop all aspects of their systems and processes, infrastructure and human resources. This includes pasture and feed supply development, infrastructure and layout, cattle husbandry, herd management strategies, monitoring and evaluation systems, guidance and staff training.

In the case of small holder projects this involves coaching and mentoring of the group’s leadership and assistance with obtaining of finance for expansion.

IACCB has eight projects spread geographically across Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and Sumbawa. Systems being piloted include cattle under oil palms, semi-intensive grazing, and cut and carry small holder enterprises.

Partners must co-invest in their project to receive IACCB program support. Investments are considerable and include cattle in some instance, grazing and cropping land, existing and purpose-built infrastructure and other resources in-kind. This high level of buy-in is a key to the successful outcomes of the program.

The IACCB program also provides field staff to assist with the implementation of new initiatives, to provide timely feedback to the IAACB team to keep new initiatives and processes on track, and to manage key risks such as those associated with animal welfare.